The Dillon tribune., 1887-03-18
ENGLISH PENNY-A-LlNERS
How They Exc Out q Miserable I.xist.
cnce in London,

How They Exc Out Miserable Exist.
cnce in London.
Although this is the best ta>on Of the
year for the penny-a-liner. met, one of
the craft the other day, wilon, I Ind
KNOWN under happier circumstances. o,,
the verge of starvation, end from what hu
told me of the profession take it that
''penny-a-lining is not really SO profit
| able busincss-in London, anvhow-as
poesy.
pennya-lining is one of those profess
sion, the embarkation upon which does
not involve the expenditure Of any yery
large amount of capital--all that is needed
Tor q start being q certain number of
''flimsies' and ''blacks," with avulcanite
plate" aud on agate ''stylo." Armed
with these, an ability to write more or less
!egibly, and smattering Of the queens
English VERY little of the latter being re-
quiredD, the embryo liner may set forth
in quest Of worlds-I had almost said
words-to conquer. Hc must not Ike dis
appointed at discovering many in the field
before him, nor at his earlier attempts
finding their way into the sub-editors' ".
p. D., which annually receives so many
miles OF what the author regarded as
most interesting ''copy." London is lit
orally Overrun with these free lances Of
| the press, who are, to a large extent, re-
| sponsiblc for the gray hairs and prema-
turc decay Of assistant editors. All is fish
which comes to the liners net, and there
are few public events which--to vary the
metaphor--do not bring grist to his mill.
Fatal accidents, sensational suicides, hor-
| rfblc murders, speeches by prominent
| men, fires, or las he invariably calls
them confiagrations-all are material for
the stylo and the ''flim.''
Great is tho liner where inquests are
concerned. In most cases he follows one
particular coroner and listens to case after
case for week after week, in the full and
certain conviction that sooner or later he
will get the temporary monopoly Of some
thing very startling or horrible. London
is too big u city for the regular staff of
any paper to properly cover, and all the
! Journals Of the metropolis are more or
less dependent upon the penny a-liner,
who occasionally shamefu,ly imposes upon
| the slD-edit0r when news j., scarce and
money scarcer
| Liners may be divided into ,No classes:
| First, those who are regularly engaged upon
the staff Of Il small suburban paper and who
exc out the miserable stipends which local
London proprietors regard rs sufficient by
thinning" anything Of sufficient import
ance for tho big dailies which they may
happen to come across n their own dis.
trict. These may be regarded rs the more
respectable half Of the profession. The
somewhat sha,lier portion is composed Of
out-at-elbows gentlemen, broken down
hacks, men dismissed for drunkenness
from the high n walks of journalism, etc.
men to whom tho non-insertion of q
'par." means absolute starvation, and il
is small wonder that sub-editors are now
and then ''had.'' \ party Of four or fiv,
liners gather together in bar parlor, ant
report their own vaporings over theil
pipes and whisky as ''an important politi
cal gatherings and quite recently tn
dead body Of Il man was several times
found hanging in one of our parks, which
corpse was never discovered by the parl
rangers or police Sunday papers 60 i,
largely for inquests, and it would not d
for too close an inquiry to be made int,
some Of the particulars reported as havin,
taken place 'ycstertlay," while the man
ner in which liners try to ''run' one an
other after something Of the kind is not
little diverting. The rule Of most paper
is, first come, first served; but some sub
have their favorites, who are the envy o
their less fortunate brcthrcn.-Cor. Phila
delrhia Telegraph